When I read this New York Times hit piece on Sarah Palin (masterfully dissected by Jennifer Rubin), I wondered how in a state where the Governor is so popular, they could only find those critical of her Administration to talk about her job performance.

But, when I chanced upon her actual job approval numbers, they seemed the reverse of the unpopular Congress. 86% approve of her, including 75% of Alaska Democrats. Let me repeat, 75% of the opposition party in her home state think she’s doing a swell job. I guess the Times wants us to hear the minority viewpoint.

I don’t like using facts I haven’t gotten from the original source when arguing my coworkers. The 75% of Alaska Democrats number was given by American Viewpoint – a Republican polling firm. This makes me uncomfortable. I wasn’t able to find any other source confirming this number. Does any one know if any other polling service has run a similar survey and what the results were?

Last week I was listening either to Rush or Mark Levin, and a caller from Alaska stated that the place was pretty inundated with media, talking only to Alaskans who dislike Palin and not interested in interviewing anyone who liked her. I knew then to discount anything coming out of Alaska in the MSM – just as I do with the MSM anyplace else…

As far as her enemies go, she should be proud of them. My bet is politicians who try to work for the people make more enemies by far than those who work for themselves and their cronies. There are precious few servant’s hearts in our political class!

dmitry, every survey has put Palin’s overall approval rating at 80% or moe; some as high as 86%. 75% from Alaska Democrats is consistent with that. Indeed, it would be mathematically impossible for her to get 80-86% from Alaskans in general if she weren’t getting 70-75% from Alaska’s Democrats.

Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel appeared in an interview with the staunchly pro-Obama Pacifica radio. They expected Gravel to bash Sarah Palin, and tell them what the Republicans “haven’t told us about Sarah Palin.” Sounds pretty om…

I was with some high school friends last night and heard them starting to rip on Sarah Palin. A few points on that:

(1) Why is it so hard to have a conversation with people without someone ripping on Bush or Cheney or Palin or some other Republican? I readily admit I’m a conservative hack and a partisan Republican, but when I’m with friends whose political beliefs may not match my own, I prefer to have a pleasant, non-political conversation. I realize it sort of goes both ways—I realize many liberals keep their opinions to themselves for the purpose of having a more pleasant discussion, and I realize some conservatives can’t resist the urge to rip on certain Democrats when political discussion might be unnecessarily divisive, but in my experience, it’s liberals, not conservatives, who always seem compelled to make a nice, apolitical conversation into something divisive.

(2) Although most everyone there seemed to disparage her, no one really gave a specific reason to disapprove of her.

There was another gloating prediction some leftie made on GP during Dem convention week, just before the Palin announcement. Something like “Did you see Obama’s convention bounce? 8 points and it will only balloon from here. You’re toast.” I wish I could remember who! 🙂

This is bull-shi*. A poll of 400 people in Alaska…….How many of the 400 were Repubs? Probably a lot. Alaska is very Republican. There is way too much bias in this type of poll. This is strictly political. To claim that 75% of registered democrats approve of Palin, is a stretch and wouldn’t pass some basic statistics.

It’s sort of pointless to argue much about exactly how popular Gov. Palin is in Alaska. What we do know is that she is wildly popular back home, and the MSM has no choice but to hide this fact lest the rest of America actually discover why she has been so popular as a governor. It’s much easier to nitpick things out of her past or insinuate cynicism on McCain’s part for picking her than to actually report on her accomplishments as governor.

Popularity isn’t everything, but it is always worth investigating why one politician is popular and one isn’t. We know why Pres. Bush isn’t popular—the War, economic woes (not that the MSM ever gave him create when things were better), and residual issues such as Harriet Miers and Katrina. Some of the reasons Pres. Bush isn’t popular are related to his own poor judgment, but sometimes it’s because he’s stood strong instead of doing what’s popular, e.g., not giving up in Iraq. Conversely, I’m sure it’s possible for a governor to be as popular as Sarah Palin while not making the right decisions. But if this is the case in Alaska, if the MSM were to do its job, they would explain why such is the case there. There’s such a huge disconnect between what the MSM reports and what the average Alaskan things of the governor.

Oh, oh, oh, I know…..instead of being supportive of taking children to sex fairs like the Democrat Party is, Republicans might actually argue that children should not be put in that environment. That’s homophobic and is destroying “the way of life of gay people”!

Right, left, or center â€“ the issue for me is the ability of the next president to appoint, possibly three Supreme Court Judges. Does any thinking gay want the stated position of Palin and implied position of McCain in charge of this process?